Paris

 The weather was beautiful and Daz had designed a brilliant 14 kilometres walk for today. After catching a metro and bus, we started at the obvious place.

The whole area is pedestrianised and we spent ages taking photos and wandering around. It would have been great to lift a bike over our heads to recreate the iconic Remco moment, but that wasn't possible, although we did pose with the Olympic rings.

Then the day just slipped away as we stopped for breakfast, coffee, lunch, boating lake, photos, etc.

Our hotel is in the Montmartre district and we could see glimpses of the Sacré-Coeur in the distance.

In the late afternoon we went on a guided walking and snacking tour of the area. We were the only two people on it and Maria our guide was lovely.

She told us lots of stories about the artists who used to live in the locally when it was very poor and cheap. These included Van Gogh, Picasso, Toulouse Lautrec and Edith Piaf.

The snacks were good too. Whilst eating and chatting we gradually climbed the hill and she left us at the top next to the beautiful basilica.

London to Paris

 An exciting 24 hours as we caught the afternoon train to London then went to a show - Titanique.

Quite a weird concept with a comedy musical about Celine Dion and the famous disaster, but the audience loved it and cheered and laughed all the way through.

In the morning we ran a huge distance along the canals near to our hotel in Paddington.

Great views all the way, and we turned back at the bench where Jackson Lamb from Slow Horses met his boss for secret meetings.

Back to the hotel for a quick shower and then up to the Eurostar terminal. Check in and passport control took about five minutes, so we had loads of time in the lounge.

By accident we timed our arrival very well because we just had time to get breakfast before they cleared it away, and then they brought out the snacks and wine.

Hungry after our run we managed to eat a good amount of both before heading for our 12.31 train.

Off the other side at Gare du Nord and we walked to our hotel. Not much later we were on our way to another show.

Not at the Moulin Rouge, although just around the corner. The MR was fully booked, but there are other venues doing the same sort of show, and ours was very glamorous.

We had a great seat and ordered a bottle of Champagne. The atmosphere was great and the show really good and colourful.

The can can and a fantastic guy in a bathtub were the highlights, but unfortunately, absolutely no photos were allowed.

Kelston Mills

 Got up really early this morning to enjoy a beautiful misty sunrise.

Then later in the day in full sunshine. 

Chester to Trentham Gardens

 It shouldn't have been a very difficult day today, only 77 kilometres and not too crazy hills. The wind seemed to be in our faces, but we had known worse and the sun was shining.

We cycled, as almost always on this trip, along beautiful quiet lanes and paths, although there are a few too many cobble sections for my liking. (We are not trying to recreate the Paris Roubais course in the West Midlands.)

After a lovely coffee and cake stop we continued on, and then most of the day was spent on canal towpaths.

Towpath cycling is very scenic and obviously no cars to worry about, but it's quite hard work as the paths are usually bumpy and quite narrow, with the added pressure to not fall in the water, particularly when passing people or dogs.

I was getting tired, so we stopped for refreshments at a pub and carried on along the Trent and Mersey Canal. This pepped me up for a while, but then came an 8 kilometre section with lock after lock all going upwards with steep cobbled paths. Also, two long sets of steps that we had to climb as well. 

My speed dropped and I couldn't keep up, but being a brave soldier, I carried on. 

Even in my sorry state I noticed that the canal was gradually changing colour, and by the time we reached the entrance to the Harecastle Tunnel, there was no denying that the water was bright orange. 

Reading up on it later it is caused by natural iron oxide leaching from historic coal mine workings into the water. It looks really alarming but according to the local council website, 'the water's colour is a unique, iconic characteristic of these specific industrial heritage sites'. So that's alright then, and it was very pretty. 

It was a relief to me too that a few kilometres further along in the Potteries, the water was back to the more traditional blue. 

By now, my energy level was down below zero and I chugged slowly behind Daz to our hotel. Just around the corner was a shop where I bought almost my own body weight in chocolate, which brought me back to life slightly. Then after an all you can eat carvery dinner, and half a bottle of wine I am back to my normal self again. Phew. 

Llandudno to Chester

 Another bright and windy day, but this time very much in our favour and it pushed us all the way from Llandudno to the top eastern edge of Wales.

Then we took a right hand turn down the estuary with distant views of England and The Wirral.

The wind was now not helping us, the sky was darkening and our lovely cycle path disappeared. As we reached Flint, and just as we had stopped to admire it's castle the rain started.

We needed to find shelter, and across the way was a concrete building with an overhang, so we raced to it. On closer inspection it had an open door, distant music playing, and a sign above it that said FTU.

I went inside to investigate, and it was the club bar for Flint Town United. It was completely empty apart from the bar man, and he told us to bring the bikes in and get a drink.

We were a couple of hours early to watch it, but the whole place was decked out for a celebration because FTU were in the Welsh Cup Final that afternoon.

Daz had a pint of FTU beer and the bar man gave us two little badges as we left. Apparently the last time that they won the cup was in about 1958 so it was all very exciting, unfortunately they lost 3 - 0 later that afternoon.

Then it wasn't too far to Chester and the cycle path reappeared, although the route got very technical and bumpy over the towpaths of a canal that took us right to our hotel.

All that was left to do then was a quick walking tour of the city before dinner.